Not that you'll see this happen in Philly anytime soon. But out in San Francisco, where the Giants finished fourth in the National League West and 18 games under .500, fans next season will find the price of their ticket will vary significantly depending on demand. For instance, tickets for an April game against Milwaukee might pay half as much as they would for a weekend game with the Dodgers later in the year.

The walk-up sales price for up to about 2,000 seats could even go up or down on game day, an Associated Press story says. The change would be minimal, anywhere between 25 cents and $2.
   
According to the AP, team president Larry Baer calls it “dynamic pricing” and figures it might just become the way of the future for professional sports franchises. The Giants have partnered with a software company that will make it possible to quickly change the ticket prices based on the popularity of a given game — not to mention weather, a possible milestone or a player from a visiting team who brings extra interest.

“We’re going to experiment with this a little bit in a few sections of the park,” Baer said. “What this really is, is the
ticket business is changing dramatically and quickly. There’s a chance we might wake up 10 years from now and tickets will be priced according to demand, like the airlines.”

Baer said, for example, fans might spend $25 to see the Giants play host to a team like the Dodgers in August or perhaps even the popular Cubs in September, but might only charge $8 for the same seats in April when the Brewers come to the Bay Area. The Phillies make one visit to the Bay area, starting a four-game series on Thursday, July 30. It will continue through Sunday, Aug. 2.
   
The team says it will see how many fans come out next year before deciding whether to duplicate the varied-price approach in 2010. Attendance failed to reach 3 million for the first time in the nine-year history of the waterfront ballpark. Having a bad team and not having Barry Bonds shooting home runs into the bay both accounted for the drop-off.

“We’re talking hundreds of seats, not thousands of seats,” Baer said. “We’ll see how it works and how the fans like it. This would be a first. We have innovative people in our ticket office.”

Baer vowed after the 2008 season not to increase ticket prices, especially considering the economic challenges. He said for the most part the team’s prices will be flat for next year. Four or five categories will be stay the same, while two or three will go down and one section has gone up slightly.

For 2009 individual ticket sales, 50 percent of prices were reduced, 38 percent remained the same and 12 percent were increased. Of season tickets, 55 percent were either reduced or stayed the same and the other 45 percent had what Baer called “minor contractual increases.” One section is up $2, he said.

Still, AP reports, someone who shows up expecting to pay $10 to see a game could wind up spending a little bit more — or less. The Giants also have worked on promotions that drop the ticket price based on the number of strikeouts a starting pitcher records or even deals at the concession stands.

“In sports, entertainment and theater, some tickets are on demand,” Baer said. “This might be the way of the future.”

The only team in Philly having a chronic problem drawing fans are the Sixers. See something like this working for them? As far as the Phillies, their biggest challenge besides repeating will be topping the 2008 season's franchise-record attendance of 3.4 million.